Protective and feeding arrangement for rolled picture or text strips



E. G. V. LEVANDER PROTECTIVE AND FEEDING ARRANGEMENT FOR ROLLED PICTURE OR TEXT STRIPS Filed Nov 25 1952 April 16, 1957 m/vavro/v [/NAR 6.14 LEW/V054 ATTORNEY United States Patent Eon; goLnunrrrs-runpfonaagggr slings;

fi ies: Yaldseta .lieraade t i a sefinesse. Application November es; 1952, Serial No. 322,481

6 Claims. or. 40-86) This invention relates to a protective and feeding arrangement for rolled picture or text material in the form of strips or sheets, for example drawings, charts, tables, calendars or such like.

Long drawings, tabular works, calendars and similar objects for example time-tables etc., are often diificult to manipulate. It is therefore usual to roll them up from both short ends clockwise and counterclockwise respectively, the desired section of the material then being made available by rolling on and off both the rollers simultaneously, without necessarily having to unroll all of it. For drawings and tabular works which are in daily use a special protective and guarding casing is also generally needed. Casings of this kind have hitherto, as a rule, been designed in such a way that the drawing etc. must be taken out therefrom when it is desired to use the drawing etc.

The main object of the present invention is to remedy this drawback by a contrivance which comprises a protective and filing casing for the rolled up material, and serves as a maneouvering unit for this material, the different parts of which can be made legible successively from the outside of the casing without removing them from the casing.

Some embodiments of the invention are shown in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a cross section on line II in Fig. 2,

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section on line 11-11 in Fig. 1, and

Figs. 3 and 4 are cross sections of two modified embodiments.

In the drawing, 1 indicates the rolled up material, for instance a strip of paper or other flexible material provided with desired text or pictures, for instance. The strip is enclosed in the interior space between the inner envelope of a casing 2, for example in the form of a cylindrical envelope which is wholly or partly transparent, or fitted with a window, and a shaft 3 extending axially therein. The shaft 3 is rotatable in relation to the casing 2 and fitted at the ends with enlarged heads 3:: and 3b which serve as bearings for the end portions of casing 2. The strip 1 extends inside casing 2 along the desired part of the circumference thereof, and the end portions 4a, 4b of said strip are rolled up, the one in clockwise direction and the other in counterclockwise direction. At least one of these rolled up end portions engages the inside of easing 2 and also contacts the central shaft 3. The rolled up end portions are maintained in their mutual positions and spaced apart by one or more distance members 5, for example in the form of rollers adapted to keep the middle portion of the strip 1, which has not been rolled up, against the inside of the casing 2, and also by one or more similar rollers 6 interposed between two rolled up ends 4a, 4b. Rollers 5 and 6 are allowed to rotate freely and form, together with the rolled up parts 40, 4b, a kind of roller-bearing like arrangement.

If casing 2 is rotated in relation to shaft 3 as shown by the arrow P in Fig. l or if the shaft 3 is rotated in relait bsltraiiimitmd b iristiqn' s a'lf waste h d s t s i L t n i s ls s ast 91 .44. 29 a s time rolled; otf fro rn end por on 41;, 0 else rolled op 'tp end portion 4bi-and rolledoff f eh arrows P1 indicated 7 offthe rollers 5 and 6 W last mentioned"i;n stance. t r ie e ires pm Qt i e ,9 W. successively readbff t'lii'ough' casi'iig 2;' According as the strip is rolled on to portion 4b this portion is slightly compressed while the strip is unrolled from the portion 4a so that the diameter of the latter portion slightly decreases or is maintained constant by expansion of the flexible material. A great advantage of the arrangement according to the invention is, in this case, that the winding or rotating movement takes place without any great friction thanks to the described rollers. These, however, can be exchanged, if desired, for other non-rotating distance units with rounded off edges.

Fig. 3 shows an embodiment with two strips 1a, 1b, enclosed in the same casing 2, and Fig. 4 shows an embodiment with three separate strips 1a, lb, 10. The numbers of strips can be arbitrarily adapted according to the purpose for which they are to be used.

It is also possible to wind up one of the ends of the strip round the shaft, the winding direction being the same as in the winding at the free rolled up end portion.

The invention can be applied to advantage for small calendarand tabular works combined with and enclosed in fountain pens or lead pencils, or such like. The whole contrivance can then be contained in a part of the body of the pen or pencil so that the casing 2 forms a part of the surface of the pen, or pencil. Different materials for the strip can be chosen from case to case, for example paper, plastic, film, etc. As shown in respect of the strips 1b and 1c in Fig. 4 it is not necessary to arrange any spacer 5 or 6 at the middle portion of the strip.

What I claim is:

1. A feeding arrangement of the character described, comprising in combination, a cylindrical casing at least partly of transparent material, at least one strip of rolled flexible material enclosed within said casing and having rolled up portions at both ends and a middle portion extending along a portion of the interior peripheral surface of said casing, said strip bearing text or pictures adapted to be read through said transparent material of said casing, a central rod extending coaxially with said cylindrical casing, so as to permit relative rotational movement of said casing and rod, both said rolled up end portions of the strip being disposed in the space between the interior peripheral surface of said casing and the longitudinal surface of said rod, and at least one guiding spacer extending parallel to said rod and disposed freely rotatable within said casing in contact with at least one of the rolled up end portions of said strip.

2. A feeding arrangement as claimed in claim 1 wherein the rotatable spacer engages both said strip and said rod.

3. A feeding arrangement as claimed in claim 1 wherein a rotatable spacer engages both said strip and the interior surface of said casing.

4. A feeding arrangement as claimed in claim 1 wherein a rotatable spacer is arranged between the rolled up end portions of two successive strips in said casing.

5. A feeding arrangement as claimed in claim 1 where in the rotatable spacer is disposed between said middle portion of the strip and the surface of said rod and engages both said middle portion and said surface of the rod.

6. A device for holding and reading elongated rolled strips comprising a base spindle, a transparent cylinder spaced 'from said spindle, end mountings to mount said cylinder rotatably upon the ends of said spindle, rolledup strips positioned between the cylinder and the spindle having a feed rolled portion, a take-up rolled-portion and an intermediate display section extending between said rolled portions, said' rolledportions and intermediate section being in frictional contact with the cylinder and spacer means to cause said rolled portions to roll and said intermediate section to move from one rolled portion to the other when the cylinder is rotated relatively to the spindle, said spacer means consisting of elongated rolling cylinders positioned between and in contact with the intermediate section and the spindle and being rolled by said spindle when the cylinder is rotated relatively to said spindle.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,371,510 Moore Mar. 15, 1921 1,645,335 Lewis Oct. 11, 1927 1,689,865 Davis Oct. 30, 1928 1,850,184 Spainhower Mar. 22, 1932 1,896,935 Bloomfield Feb. 7, 1933 2,021,934 Dull Nov. 26, 1935 2,173,188 Van Dersal Sept. 19,-1939 

